Ernest Briggs

Ernest Briggs was born in San Francisco in 1923. He studied under Clyfford Still at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The faculty, assembled by Douglas MacAgy, also included Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. After moving to New York in 1953, Briggs began exhibiting at Stable Gallery. He participated in several Whitney Museum Annuals and in 1956 was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “12 Americans” curated by Dorothy Miller. Briggs sought inspiration in nature. The changing qualities of the natural world are conveyed through his ragged and expressive brushwork. A second generation Abstract Expressionist, Briggs represents “action painting.” His paintings are alive; they offer viewers an experience that is both mysterious and known.

Blair Collection of Bay Area Abstract Expressionism Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Ciba-Geigy Corporation, Ardsley, NY
Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC
Housatonic Community College, CT
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
NU Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA
Portland Museum of Maine Rockefeller Institute, NY
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
San Jose Museum of Art, CA
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
Jan Verhoeven Collection, Stichting Yellow Fellow, Woudrichem, Netherlands
Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC